Mary Jo Occhialino flips through paperwork as she talks about how the city wants her to take down a backyard tree that she says is perfectly healthy on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union) less

Mary Jo Occhialino flips through paperwork as she talks about how the city wants her to take down a backyard tree that she says is perfectly healthy on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / ... more

The ash tree stands, as it has for decades, like a quiet backyard sentinel. It's the calm at the center of a storm that I'll call TreeGate.

On one side of the debate are the tree's nearest neighbors, Russell and Christine Pearce, who say it's a 90-foot menace. The tree is dead and rotting, they believe, a threat to topple toward their home and yard.

"We want the tree to come down because it's a danger," Christine Pearce said. "I don't feel safe in my own backyard."

On the other side is Mary Jo Occhialino. The tree is on her property in Albany's Eagle Hill neighborhood, and she believes it's in fine health. The tree is no more likely to fall than any other in the neighborhood, she says, so there's no reason to chop it down.

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I took a look at the tree on Thursday, but arbor health is not one of my areas of expertise. So let's turn to the experts.

Last September, an arborist hired by the city examined the tree and determined it was showing "aggressive ... loss of vigor." I sometimes feel that way, too, but apparently the condition is perilous for a tree: The arborist recommended its "complete removal."

Well, that's that. Sorry, tree, but your time has passed.

Or has it?

Last week, an arborist hired by Occhialino examined the tree and decided it presented a "low risk" to neighbors. That was a repeat of prior determinations by Davey Tree Expert Co., which even performed a resistograph decay test on the tree in 2013 and found it to be in decent health.

So what we have, then, is a difference in expert opinion.

It won't surprise you that TreeGate has made an appearance on Facebook, resulting in the usual social media acrimony and, Albany being Albany, accusations of nefarious political influence. But I've found nothing to suggest that TreeGate is anything more than a dispute between neighbors.

Occhialino and the Pearces do have at least one area of agreement: Both households are understandably angry at the city for the length of the process.

See, this dispute began in 2012, when the Pearces first complained about the tree, which is just over a chain-link fence from their yard. The city decided the tree was a safety threat, and therefore a code violation, and ordered its removal. Yet then it suspended the order when Occhialino took steps to improve the tree's health, including ridding it of a borer infestation.

A year later, in response to another complaint from the Pearces, the city reinstated the order to remove the tree. Under Albany law, the city can take down a problem tree if a homeowner ignores a removal order. Homeowners are then charged the cost.

Christine Pearce doesn't understand how the tree is still standing.

"We've been told time and time again that the tree is coming down, but the city never does it," she said. "It's a code violation. As a taxpayer who pays a lot of taxes here, I have the right to ask the city to enforce the code."

Occhialino has a different take, of course. She believes she's endured years of harassment. Every time the tree seems saved, she said, the city waits a few months before again threatening to take it down.

"What is the reason for this crusade?" she asks. "Why spend all these taxpayer dollars, not to mention my personal dollars?"

If I told you how much Occhialino has spent on arborists to defend the tree — she asked me not to specify — your jaw would be resting on your belly. She has also taken her campaign to the mayor's office, the Times Union and, yes, Facebook.

She has no special sentimental attachment to the tree, she says, but enjoys its beauty and doesn't want to see it go needlessly.

"I'd like to have a stay of execution," Occhialino said.

Last week, the city seemed to be getting serious about taking it down. Occhialino arrived home on Wednesday to find city workers in her backyard, planning for the tree's removal.

But hopeful news for the tree arrived Friday, when a city spokesperson said the order for removal is on hold pending another resistograph decay test. Positive results could save the tree, although the debate over its future seems likely to continue.

For now, it still stands. If the tree falls, or doesn't, somebody will hear about it.